Thirty years ago, Scotland had a burgeoning tech industry. It made three in 10 of Europe’s personal computers, and electronics accounted for 28 per cent of the nation’s exports. But “Silicon Glen” failed to expand much beyond manufacturing, and growth fizzled out in the 2000s.
Now hopes are rising that Edinburgh is finally on the road to becoming a world-class self-sustaining global tech hub. This time, much of the action is focused on applications of artificial intelligence, particularly in healthcare and financial services.
This specialism builds on the University of Edinburgh’s expertise. It is home to Europe’s largest concentration of academic AI researchers and is preparing to open the UK’s biggest supercomputer and a huge data centre. The hopes for the Scottish capital also reflect the maturing fintech and biotech sectors and the ability to access the Scottish National Health Service’s unusually detailed health data.
Rather than relying on fickle multinationals, this time the sector is building on start-ups spun out of local universities and nurtured by…
